Sports Performance Training Isn’t Just For Athletes…Here’s Why

You need sports performance training in your life.

Athlete. Non athlete. Pro athlete. Joe Schmo. Me. You.

There is this automatic (and weird) divide we tend to place between athletes and non-athletes, and it’s as tall as it is wide. It’s almost like we set them worlds apart, into two separate worlds: the athletic world and the non athletic world. For instance, athletes “train”. You just “work out”. Ever heard that one before?

In reality, “athlete” refers to anyone who engages in organized team sports. The differences beyond this little detail? Honestly, they’re few and far between.

What if I told you that the things that athletes do to get the best out of their bodies work just as well for Joe Schmo? Would you believe me?

Being an athlete most of my life (4th grade up until last September) has given me access to a lot of cool stuff. When I say a lot, I mean A LOT. Being a professional athlete was like “access” on steroids. But not really steroids… because that’s cheating.

I used to say that being a professional athlete gave me “the privilege to access”: privilege to knowledge, resources, and information for me to help my body perform at its maximum capacity. AKA, the pursuit to beast mode.

Last September, I said goodbye to that pursuit and, soon thereafter, started the Xplosive Performance Academy (Massachusetts) in Framingham, MA to spread all that sports performance knowledge that I was so privileged to learn. Now, I’m sharing everything I had during my years as a collegiate and professional football player with athletes of all ages to assist in their sports goals and aspirations.

My vow: all athletes that trained at Xplosive Performance Academy would be given the opportunity to know, realign, balance, add flexibility, and build ever increasing core-strength to their bodies to maximize how their anatomy is meant to function, specific to their sport.

Xplosive Performance Academy’s slogan? Maximize Your Athleticism! What athlete isn’t trying to do that? My athletes put in the work. They saw the results. I witnessed athletes of different sizes and abilities learn to move properly, safely, and explosively.

In other words, they were using the best of their bodies in the right way. I was a proud papa. I loved that they were reaching their goals in a safe and sustainable way.

The real proud papas and mamas (that’s what I call parents) testified to the overall lifestyle benefits they saw from their young athletes while simultaneously hinting at needing to “get in shape” themselves. I also started to have non-athletes (in a different forum I would generally call them…I don’t know…“friends” *shrugs*) ask me if I would consider training them as well.

Telling them no was never an option. Not only did I not want to get in the way of someone making steps to a healthier lifestyle but I was, in fact, honored to play a role in the pursuit of that lifestyle. I still was, and in my head still am, an athlete. I train athletes. So I got to thinking: “How can I adjust my program to accommodate Joe Schmo, who has no sports performance goals to speak of?”

It took me a grand total of 4 minutes and 27 seconds of deliberation to realize how absurd that question truly is. There it was again. The divide. The separation of worlds. I was guilty.

So I got to thinking (again) that everyone should have access to the training that a professional athletes get. Movement based, functional training that emphasizes an aligned, flexible, balanced body whose core strength supersedes how much that very same body can bench press or squat. Functional movement for better long term health. Xplosive Performance Academy’s foundation is science based neuromuscular exercises. Exercises that put the body in the position to work how it is meant to work– as it was made to work. XPA’s program meets you right where you are and works the body from inside out.

What about those infamous sports performance goals, you ask? The only accommodation I had to make to the program was to take one word out….”sports”.

Performance goals are the target. Our goal is to put your body in the best position to perform its daily movements so that you can feel good and move well for a long, long time. No matter a person’s size, body type, experience, fitness level; the program maximizes your body to function as it’s meant to function. Weight loss, aesthetics, strength goals are all fine and dandy, but they are not the target of Xplosive Performance Academy’s program. These things will happen (in fantastic ways even) but they will happen safely and in a way that is sustainable.

Xplosive Performance Academy is for anyone and it is for everyone. Anyone looking for new, fun, safe, and challenging ways to reach fitness goals and live and maintain a healthy lifestyle. It doesn’t take a uber talented professional athlete to Maximizing Your Athleticism. You can start right now with these 4 exercises.